I thought seahorses, creatures where the male gives birth, were weird before I found out they'd evolved resistance to rubber mallets...
Engineers 3D-print ROBOT SEAHORSE, then SMASH it with rubber mallets
A thing you may not have known: the tail of a seahorse is a square prism rather than the typical cylinder shape normally expected in tails. Researchers have now investigated what mechanical performance advantages this may provide, and reckon it has immense robotic applications. Clemson University boffins have found the ideal …
COMMENTS
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Friday 3rd July 2015 12:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Are the military and/or their really presumed to be thickos?
The way "defense" is listed as a separate application field to robotics and biomed. imagine the scene:
Head of research excitedly announces: "We now understand how to build stronger, more agile robots!"
(no reaction from the Chief of Staff, who keeps idly toying with his cigar cutter)
HoR: "For super-soldiers!"
CoS looks up like puppy promised a walk
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Friday 3rd July 2015 16:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Unsure about the vailidity of the comparison
The article just says that square X-section tail was compared with a 'control' circular X-section tail but doesn't say how the two X-sections were equivilent i.e. were they of equal X-sectional area or of equal X-sectional dimension?
If they were of equal X-sectional area (and therefore contain similar volumes of material) then the circular X-section tail will have smaller X-sectional dimensions and, unsurpisingly, will be easier to deform, despite having the same volume of material.
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Monday 6th July 2015 08:53 GMT Muscleguy
I for one wish to welcome our square prism toothed sucker equipped armored robot overlords.
What? That tail is just asking to become a robot tentacle and as we all know tentacles need suckers and once you have them then why not equip them with teeth/spikes/thorns like Vampiroteuthis infernalis.